Sunday, February 11, 2007

Perspective: U.S. to bear long-term cost of troops injured in Iraq

Mariela Mason

As Sgt. Mariela Mason lay in a coma with grave brain damage, military doctors suggested that her parents might want to end her life.

"They said, 'She's going to be a veggie for the rest of her life; she has no chance,' " recalled Mason's mother, Lisette Meylan. "I was not a happy camper that day." More than two years later, the former Army truck driver is awake and recovering from her Iraq war injuries.

Around-the-clock care at military and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and treatment by private therapists have given her a chance. But she remains severely disabled and probably will need extensive VA care for years, if not the rest of her life.

Her story illustrates the long-term cost - in dollars as well as broken bodies - of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Caring for and compensating troops who return with wounds, injuries or illnesses is the price the nation has just begun to pay.